Sarah Elizabeth Dryden-Peterson

Refugee Education: The Crossroads of Globalization

In this article, I probe a question at the core of comparative education—how to realize the right to education for all and ensure opportunities to use that education for future participation in society. I do so through examination of refugee education from World War II to the present, including analysis of an original data set of documents (n = 214) and semistructured interviews (n = 208). The data illuminate how refugee children are caught between the global promise of universal human rights, the definition of citizenship rights within nation-states, and the realization of these sets of rights in everyday practices. Conceptually, I demonstrate the misalignment between normative aspirations, codes and doctrines, and mechanisms of enforcement within nation-states, which curtails refugees’ abilities to activate their rights to education, to work, and to participate in society.

Refugee education in countries of first asylum: Breaking open the black box of pre-resettlement experiences

The number of refugees who have fled across international borders due to conflict and persecution is at the highest level in recorded history. The vast majority of these refugees find exile in low-income countries neighboring their countries of origin. The refugee children who are resettled to North America, Europe, and Australia arrive with previous educational experiences in these countries of first asylum. This article examines these pre-resettlement educational experiences of refugee children, which to date have constituted a ‘black box’ in their post-resettlement education. Analysis is of data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, key informant interviews in 14 countries of first asylum, and ethnographic fieldwork and interviews in four countries. The article argues that contemporary conditions of conflict usefully inform conceptual understanding of refugee education globally, including the types of schools that refugees access in countries of first asylum and their rates of access. It further identifies three empirical themes that are common to the educational experiences of refugees in countries of first asylum: language barriers, teacher-centered pedagogy, and discrimination in school settings. The article examines the theoretical and practical relevance of these pre-resettlement educational experiences for post-resettlement education of refugee children.

Refugee education: Education for an unknowable future

ABSTRACT Conflict and displacement are increasingly protracted, requiring rethinking of refugee education as a long-term endeavour, connected not only to the idea of return but to the ongoing nature of exile. In this essay, I examine how refugees conceptualize education and its role in creating certainty and mending the disjunctures of their trajectories as refugees. Through a portrait of one refugee teacher, the essay explores technical, curricular, and relational dimensions of refugee education that assist refugee students in preparing for unknowable futures.

Tracing pathways to higher education for refugees: the role of virtual support networks and mobile phones for women in refugee camps

ABSTRACT In this paper, we explore the role of online social networks in the cultivation of pathways to higher education for refugees, particularly for women. We compare supports garnered in local and offline settings to those accrued through online social networks and examine the differences between women and men. The paper draws on complementary original data sources, including an online survey of the Somali Diaspora (n = 248) and in-depth interviews (n = 21) with Somali refugees who do or have lived in the Dadaab refugee camps of Kenya. We find an important interplay of local and global interactions, mediated by mobile technology, that participants identify as critical to their access to higher education. Our analysis relates these interactions to shifting social norms and possibilities for refugee women’s education. Our findings directly address the use of information and communication technology in expanding opportunities for higher education for women in refugee camps.

Pathways toward Peace: Negotiating National Unity and Ethnic Diversity through Education in Botswana

This study examines how education can disrupt threats of conflict, specifically in the presence of ethnic diversity. We present a historical analysis of Botswana, using methods of process tracing drawing on documents, in-depth interviews, and Afrobarometer survey data. Postindependence Botswana engaged in redistribution of educational access across ethnic groups and promotion of common civic principles of social harmony. At the same time, it constructed through schools ethnically based national identity, which excluded many minorities. Lack of recognition for ethnic minorities remains a persistent challenge, yet it exists in a context of high commitment to unity and the nation-state, even among minority groups, which may have allowed recent dissent to happen peacefully. The article defines mechanisms by which educational redistribution and recognition can disrupt resource-based and identity-based inequalities that often lead to conflict. This model holds promise for conflict avoidance and mitigation in multiethnic states globally.

Education, conflict, and globalisation: Guest Editors’ introduction

Henri’s mother fled conflict in her home country of Burundi. Henri was born in a refugee camp. Throughout his childhood, he lived as a refugee in exile in Tanzania, an experience characterised by i...

Family–school relationships in immigrant children’s well-being: the intersection of demographics and school culture in the experiences of black African immigrants in the United States

Abstract This article explores the types of family–school relationships that promote academic, socio-economic, and social and emotional well-being of black African immigrant children in the United States. The data are ethnographic, drawing on one year of participant observation and interviews at two elementary schools. The findings are also set within the context of an analysis of data from the New Immigrant Survey. The article identifies mechanisms by which relationships between black African immigrants and schools are created and argues that intersections between demographics and school culture are central, particularly as related to the possibilities for relational power, which can allow parents and school staff to transcend persistent inequalities of race and discrimination.

“When I Am a President of Guinea”: Resettled Refugees Traversing Education in Search of a Future

This article explores how resettled refugees’ aspirations cultivated through education collide with postschooling realities. We find that post-graduation barriers of financial insecurity, housing insecurity, violence and discrimination, and lack of critical awareness of unequal opportunity structures stand in the way of resettlement aspirations. We discuss how teachers and schools might be retooled to equip refugee students with more and different skills to navigate post-graduation situations.

Conflict: Education and Youth

This article explores the multiple and complex relationships between conflict, education, and youth. We begin by outlining conceptions of education, youth, and conflict, as they vary across legal, social, and physical spaces. Drawing on global examples, we explore the ways education plays a role in instigating, reinforcing, escalating, mitigating, resolving, and preventing conflict. We then examine the psychological, social, economic, and political dimensions of the youth experience and the ways in which they are influenced by living in a conflict setting. Finally, we analyze the role of education in understanding the links between youth and conflict, focusing on access to high quality and relevant education that connects to future prospects for individual youth and their communities.

Pathways to Educational Success Among Refugees: Connecting Locally and Globally Situated Resources:

This study identifies pathways to educational success among refugees. Data are from an original online survey of Somali diaspora and in-depth qualitative interviews with Somali refugee students educated in the Dadaab refugee camps of Kenya. This research builds on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to consider both the locally and globally situated nature of resources across refugees’ ecosystems. Analysis examines the nature and content of student-identified supports and their perceived influence on access to and persistence in school as well as the mediating role of technology. The findings suggest consideration of both locally situated relationships and globally situated relationships as critical educational supports. Implications include leveraging naturally occurring virtual relationships to support educational success of refugees and other young people who are physically isolated from access to needed supports in their local region.